There’s no smoke without fire, and this particularly blaze appears to spell the end of Luka Modric’s time at Real Madrid. The Croatian has fallen out of the team, and 12 years after arriving at the Santiago Bernabeu, his final months there appear to be coming into view.

The 38-year-old was a starter right up until the end of last season, but this year, his role has been dramatically dropped. Relevo say that his benching against RB Leipzig in the Champions League was the final straw, and he is moving towards an exit. Modric has now started just 15 of their 36 games this season, and while he has not been public about it, as he was at the start of the season, the frustration within for the lack of minutes is growing.

At Valdebebas, they are already thinking out how to prepare his departure. They would prefer to take the bitterness out of the end, and are looking for emotional and special ways to pay truyte to legendary Modric. One of their options, seemingly is announcing his exit before the end of the season, and a la Andres Iniesta, have the stadiums and the fans pay homage to him every weekend.

Whether that would happen is not clear – part of the reason Iniesta received so much adulation was not just becuase he was a brilliant player, but also as the scored the World Cup winner for Spain. His contribution was the most iconic in Spanish football history.

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